# LinTunes

![LinTunes](screenshot.png)

an mp3 library manager and player for linux. Absolutely no guarantees, if it wrecks your itunes library or wipes your harddrive that's on you (maybe just have your LLM of choice review the software for bugs and vulns?).

## Features

**Library**
- Sortable track list with 24 optional columns (plays, skips, rating, BPM,
  bit rate, date added…) — column choice, sort and widths are remembered
  *per playlist*.
- **Column browser** (Ctrl+B) — filter by genre / artist / album, iTunes-style.
- Instant **search** over name, artist, album, composer and more.
- **Get Info** (Ctrl+I) edits tags on one track or a whole selection at once,
  writing them back to the file. Artwork can be pasted, dragged in, or fetched
  automatically (**Download Album Art…**, via the iTunes Search API).
- Rename an artist or album and the files **move themselves** into a tidy
  `Artist/Album/` tree.
- **Undo/redo everything** (Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z) — edits, deletes, reorders.
- Deleting a track sends the file to your desktop **Trash**, never `rm`.

**Playlists**
- Regular playlists, **folders**, and **smart playlists** (auto-updating, with a
  full rule editor — nested groups, limits; marked with a ❧).
- Drag and drop to reorder or insert at a spot; duplicate-aware adds;
  copy/cut/paste tracks between playlists.

**Playing**
- mp3, m4a, flac, aac, wav, aiff via Qt Multimedia/FFmpeg.
- Shuffle, per-track **start/stop times**, play counts, skip counts and ratings.
- **Media keys** work (MPRIS), plus Space and ←/→ anywhere in the app.
- Live **spectrum visualizer** — click it to cycle bright / dim / off.
- Optional **last.fm scrobbling** (Edit ▸ Preferences).
- Theming: highlight color, UI scale, and custom colors for most of the chrome.

**Sending music elsewhere**
- **Chromecast** (Connections menu) — streams the original file bit-for-bit,
  no transcode, with album art on the TV.
- **Export a playlist** (File ▸ Export Playlist…) — either a folder of
  `Artist - Title.mp3` files plus an `.m3u`, or a self-contained **web mix**
  (`index.html` you can upload anywhere).
- **Sync a playlist to a Rabbit R1** over MTP, `.m3u` included.

**Living on more than one machine**
- The whole library is **plain JSON**, designed to be synced with
  [Syncthing](https://syncthing.net). Sync conflicts merge themselves on
  startup, and a change synced in from elsewhere shows up **while the app is
  running**.
- Play counts can't conflict: every machine keeps its own tally and they're
  summed.
- The version number in the status bar checks for updates and, on a click,
  pulls and restarts.

## How it works

- Your music files are never moved or rewritten (except when you edit tags,
  rename an artist/album, or delete a track on purpose).
- The library lives as **plain JSON files** (`library.json` + one file per
  playlist) in a directory you choose. Track paths are stored *relative to that
  directory*, so the library works no matter where each machine mounts it.
- Playback via Qt Multimedia/FFmpeg. Media keys through MPRIS. Scrobbling to
  last.fm is optional (Edit → Preferences).

## Why

I have been a mac user for ~34 years. I gave up daily driving mac os in 2021. I got tired of my music being solely on my desktop for 5 years. So I vibe-coded this replacement of all the features I wanted from iTunes.

## Never used a terminal? Start here

If the commands below look intimidating, they're friendlier than they look.

The **terminal** is a window where you type commands instead of clicking. On
most Linux desktops you open it by pressing the Super key (the one with the
Windows/Command logo) and typing "terminal". Everything in a grey box below is
meant to be **copied and pasted** into that window — paste it, press Enter,
done. You don't need to understand a command to run it.

Two bits of shorthand that show up everywhere:

- **`~`** means your home folder. `~/Music` is just the Music folder inside your
  home folder — the same one your file manager shows you.
- **Your "distro"** is which flavour of Linux you're running (Ubuntu, Fedora,
  Debian, Mint…). If you don't know, it's almost certainly Ubuntu or Mint, and
  you want the **Debian/Ubuntu** instructions below.

If a command fails, nothing is broken — copy the error into a search engine, or
ask whoever pointed you here. You cannot damage your music by running these.

## What you need

Linux, Python, and a handful of free add-ons. **Nothing to compile, no account
to make, no database to set up, nothing that phones home.** LinTunes keeps your
library as ordinary files on your own computer.

In detail, for anyone who wants it:

- **Linux** with Python **3.10 or newer** (already installed on essentially
  every Linux machine — check with `python3 --version`)
- **PyQt6** (including its QtMultimedia part), **mutagen**, **numpy**, **requests**
- The **FFmpeg codecs for Qt Multimedia**. Without these the window opens fine
  but nothing plays — so if you get a silent LinTunes, this is the thing that's
  missing. They come from `qt6-qtmultimedia` built with ffmpeg (Fedora: enable
  RPM Fusion; Debian/Ubuntu: it comes along with `python3-pyqt6.qtmultimedia`).

## Installing

Pick whichever fits your distro:

- **pip** — simplest where your distro allows it; also puts a `lintunes` command
  in `~/.local/bin`:
  ```sh
  pip install -e .
  ```
- **Debian/Ubuntu** — system pip is locked down (the `externally-managed-environment`
  / PEP 668 error), so install the deps from apt and skip pip entirely:
  ```sh
  sudo apt install python3-pyqt6 python3-pyqt6.qtmultimedia \
                   python3-mutagen python3-numpy python3-requests
  ```
  (If `python3-pyqt6.qtmultimedia` isn't found, `apt search python3-pyqt6` and
  grab the multimedia one.) There's no `lintunes` command this way — run it with
  `python3 -m lintunes.main`.
- **venv** — isolated:
  ```sh
  python3 -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/pip install -e .
  ```
  Run with `.venv/bin/lintunes`. One caveat: the dock launcher (see *App icon*)
  uses the *system* python, which can't see a venv's packages — so for the icon
  to work, edit the installed `lintunes.desktop`'s `Exec=` line to the absolute
  venv path (`…/lintunes/.venv/bin/lintunes %F`).

**You never strictly need pip or the `lintunes` command.** As long as those four
deps import, `python3 -m lintunes.main` from the checkout runs the app — which is
exactly what the desktop launcher does.

Below, `lintunes` and `python3 -m lintunes.main` are interchangeable — use
whichever your install gave you.

## Starting from scratch (no iTunes needed)

LinTunes doesn't care where your music came from — a shelf of ripped CDs, a
Bandcamp folder, twenty years of downloads. You do **not** need iTunes, and you
don't need to have ever owned a Mac.

Tell it where to keep the library, once:

```sh
mkdir -p ~/Music/lintunes                              # the library lives here
lintunes --data-dir ~/Music/lintunes --save-config     # remembers it from now on
```

Then just run `lintunes`. The first time it opens, it asks one question — where
to keep your music — and suggests `~/Music`. Pick a folder, or click **Not
Now** and set it later in **Edit ▸ Preferences**.

Now add music: **File ▸ Add Files to Library** (Ctrl+O), or drag files and
folders straight onto the window. Whole folders are fine — LinTunes looks
inside them, reads each song's tags, and skips anything already in your library.

Your songs are **copied** into the folder you chose and filed by artist and
album, iTunes-style:

```
~/Music/Neko Case/Fox Confessor Brings the Flood/Star Witness.mp3
```

The originals are left exactly where they were, so nothing is lost if you
change your mind. From there, make playlists and go.

## Importing an existing iTunes library

In iTunes 12.x: **File ▸ Library ▸ Export Library** to get the XML, then:

```sh
lintunes --import-xml "iTunes Library.xml" \
    --music-root "/path/to/iTunes Media" \
    --data-dir /path/to/library-data --save-config
lintunes                                  # from now on, just run it
```

This brings across your tracks, playlists, playlist folders and smart playlists
(auto-updating and still editable), along with play counts, ratings and dates.
Mac paths are remapped to `--music-root` automatically, including
case/accent differences. Anything it couldn't find is written to
`import_missing_files.txt` in your data dir. Untested on iTunes versions other
than 12.

## Running it

```sh
lintunes            # uses the saved config
```

LinTunes looks best with **Century Gothic** installed
(drop the font in `~/.local/share/fonts/`); if it's missing, the first launch
asks you to pick a substitute or use the default.

The desktop launcher runs LinTunes with no arguments, so it always uses whatever
is saved in `~/.config/lintunes/config.json` — point that config wherever you
want and the dock icon follows.

The now-playing panel uses **Century Gothic** if you have it and quietly picks
the closest match installed if you don't — it never interrupts you to ask. To
choose a different one, see **Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Now-playing font**.

## Keys

Space play/pause · ←/→ previous/next · Ctrl+B column browser ·
Ctrl+I get info · Ctrl+L go to current song · Ctrl+O add files ·
Ctrl+N new playlist (Ctrl+Alt+N smart, Ctrl+Shift+N folder) ·
Ctrl+Z undo · Ctrl+, preferences · Ctrl+C/Ctrl+X/Ctrl+V copy/cut/paste tracks ·
double-click sidebar art for a big art window

## Running on a second machine (Syncthing)

Keep the data dir (which holds `library.json`, the playlists, and
`preferences.json`) **inside** your Syncthing-shared music folder, so the music
and the library travel together. Track paths are stored *relative to the data
dir*, so the library resolves correctly no matter where each machine mounts the
shared folder — you never edit anything inside the library to move it.

`~/.config/lintunes/config.json` is **per-machine** (it is *not* synced), so on a
new machine you just tell LinTunes where the synced folder landed:

```sh
# 1. get the code, then install the deps (see "Installing" above: pip / apt / venv)
git clone ssh://git@git.autonomic.zone:2222/trav/lintunes.git
cd lintunes

# 2. let Syncthing finish replicating the music folder, then point the config at
#    THIS machine's paths and launch — no re-import, the data is already synced:
python3 -m lintunes.main --data-dir "/path/to/synced/music/lintunes" --save-config

# 3. install the launcher + icon, then pin it (see "App icon" below)
bash packaging/install-desktop.sh
```

(Step 2 just writes `data_dir` into `~/.config/lintunes/config.json` — you can
also create that file by hand. After it's saved, every launch, including the
dock icon, uses the synced library automatically.)

## App icon

`packaging/install-desktop.sh` installs the launcher entry and icon for your
user (lets you pin LinTunes to the GNOME dash). The icon is just a file —
replace `packaging/lintunes.png` (256×256 PNG) and re-run the script to use
your own. GNOME caches icons, so if the old one lingers, log out and back in.

Unpinning from the dash does **not** uninstall LinTunes — it's still in the
GNOME app grid (open Activities and search "LinTunes"). Right-click it there →
**Pin to Dash** to get it back.

## Development

```sh
python3 -m pytest tests/
```

`spec.md` is the original design brief; `tasks*.md` track what's built.